New York Magazine

Pleased to Meet You

10 of 10

Carla Rhodes Age: 26 Born: Louisville, Kentucky Idols: Shari Lewis, the Marx Brothers Signature Joke: “I was really different growing up. People used to tease me for wearing makeup and dresses. But now that I’m a female, no one seems to care.”

Photographs by Jake Chessum

Craig Baldo Age: 37 Comes From: Madison, New Jersey Idols: George Carlin, Louis C.K. Signature Joke: “I get invited to a lot of parties. I don’t know if it’s because I’m really likable or if it’s just because I own a fog machine.”

Kumail Nanjiani Age: 30 Comes From: Karachi, Pakistan Idols: Woody Allen, Zach Galifianakis Signature Joke: “I was in Coney Island, and I rode the Cyclone. Terrifying. When I got off, I found out that it’s one of the oldest functional roller coasters in the world. Do you know what year the Cyclone was made? 1927. They should change the name of the ride to ‘1927,’ because that fact is way scarier than any cyclone.”

Reese Waters Age: 28 Comes From: Washington, D.C. Idols: Chris Rock, Sam Kinison Signature Joke: “When we watched sports growing up, my parents always rooted for the black guy: the black coach, the black quarterback. You can’t do that anymore because there’re so many black people in sports. So now they root for the black guy—with the black wife.”

Hannibal Buress Age: 26 Comes From: Chicago Idols: Dave Chappelle, Louis C.K. Signature Joke: “I saw two Hasidic Jews walk past each other without speaking. I thought that was weird. If I saw someone with the exact same outfit as me from head to toe, I’d at least stop and say. ‘That’s a nice hat.’”

Claudia Cogan Age: Let’s just say I’m becoming a lesbian that guys don’t want to watch. Comes From: New York Idols: Sandra Bernhard, David Letterman Signature Joke: “Until the financial crisis, I thought a 401(k) was an unusually long marathon. I couldn’t understand why my co-workers kept signing up. To me, it was just a way to mess up a Sunday.”

Ophira Eisenberg Age: 36 Comes From: Calgary, Alberta Idols: Woody Allen, Tina Fey Signature Joke: “When the economy fell apart I thought, Oh no! What’s going to happen to me? And then nothing happened. Because I have … nothing. No savings, no investments, no mortgage. It’s like the world is rewarding me for being a transient screwup.”

Max Silvestri Age: 26 Comes From: Boston Idols: Patton Oswalt, Louis C.K. Signature Joke: “The sentence my dictionary gives for ‘whale: to beat or to hit’ is ‘Dad went upstairs and whaled on his son.’ Not, ‘Dad went to prison for whaling on his child.’ It’s basically, ‘Dad, apropos of nothing, walked upstairs to the one room his son felt safe in to whale on him for no other reason than his knuckles were thirsty.’”